Paper short abstract:

Body composition analysis on the effect of emotional deprivation showed that all fractional body masses were significantly lesser in institutionalized adolescents (both sexes) than their control coevals, except muscle mass in females.

Paper long abstract:

The study was carried out on 1074 subjects (504 emotionally deprived and 570 controls including both the sexes) from the orphanages and similar economic level educational institutions of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Anthropometric measurements were taken and further fractional body masses were calculated. It was observed that institutionalized adolescents had all fractional body masses lesser than their control counterparts, except muscle mass in females. The absolute skeletal mass was more in females of control group but the percentage was greater in emotionally deprived females, with non-significant differences in both cases. The institutionalized males had statistically significant differences in absolute muscle mass and non-significant ones in percentage of muscle mass. The female adolescents residing in orphanages had non-significant differences in absolute muscle mass and significant ones in percentage of muscle mass. The results elucidate that the growth of tissue compartments is likely to be altered in children with orphanage experience.